1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a windscreen wiper device comprising an elastic, elongated carrier element, as well as an elongated wiper blade, which can be placed in abutment with a windscreen to be wiped, which wiper blade includes at least one longitudinal groove, in which groove a longitudinal strip of the carrier element is disposed, wherein ends of the longitudinal strip are connected to a respective connecting piece, which windscreen wiper device comprises a connecting device for an oscillating arm.
2. Related Art
Such a windscreen wiper device is known from international (PCT-) patent publication no. WO 02/090155 in the name of the same Applicant. The prior art windscreen wiper device is in particular designed as a “yokeless” wiper device or “flat blade”, wherein use is no longer made of several yokes pivotally connected to each other, but wherein the wiper blade is biassed by the carrier element, as a result of which it exhibits a specific curvature. In this known windscreen wiper device the wiper blade includes two opposing longitudinal grooves on its longitudinal sides, in which grooves spaced-apart longitudinal strips of the carrier element are disposed. Neighbouring ends of the longitudinal strips are interconnected by the respective connecting piece.
A sometimes felt disadvantage of the windscreen wiper device as described in the above international (PCT-) patent publication is the following. The connecting device shown therein comprises clamping members that are integral therewith, which engage around longitudinal sides of the longitudinal strips that face away from each other, as a result of which the connecting device is attached to the unit consisting of the wiper blade and the strips. In order to lock the connecting device in a direction along the longitudinal strips, in practice the strips are provided with a recess at their exterior longitudinal side, so that the clamping members of the connecting device rest in the recess. Obviously, cutting such a precisely shaped recess in each longitudinal strip needs additional tools and an extra step in manufacturing the windshield wiper device.